Chladni Plate Cymatics (2D)

Drive

Frequency 220 Hz

Drive amplitude 100%

Live Readout

Mode (n, m)

Resonance

-- Hz

Nodal lines (est.)

Settled sand

Tuning the plate…

How it works

A square metal plate is driven from below at a chosen frequency. At most frequencies the plate vibrates chaotically and scattered sand just jitters. But at certain resonant frequencies the plate locks into a clean standing-wave eigenmode (n, m): the surface splits into a checkerboard of regions moving up and down 180° out of phase, separated by stationary nodal lines where the amplitude is exactly zero.

Grains of sand are flung off the moving antinodes (where displacement is large) and drift toward the quiet nodal lines, where they pile up — producing the classic Chladni figure. This sim finds the mode whose natural frequency is closest to your slider (using f ∝ n² + m² for a square plate) and steers each grain down the local gradient of the mode shape, exactly the physics a real plate follows.

Raise the drive amplitude and the sand jumps around more before settling; near zero it barely leaves the nodal lines once it finds them. Hit "Scatter sand" to re-randomize the grains and watch the pattern reassemble from scratch.